Sandy recovery, not climate, on Governor Christie's radar

Governor Christie said he has been so busy helping New Jersey recover from superstorm Sandy that he hasn’t had time to consider “the esoteric question” of whether climate change may have fueled the devastating storm.

“It’s not a main concern for me,” Christie said when asked about climate change and Sandy during a news conference Tuesday.

“I have to tell you the truth, I’ve been focused on a lot of things; the cause of this is not one of them that I’ve focused on,” Christie said after addressing Sandy-related insurance issues in his news conference in Union Beach.

“Now maybe, in the subsequent months and years, after I get done with trying to rebuild the state and put people back in their homes, I will have the opportunity to ponder the esoteric question of the cause of this storm,” he said. “Right now I’m dealing with people who are out of their homes, out of their businesses because of the storm and, candidly, I don’t have time to deal with it.”

Superstorm Sandy was one of the worst weather events in the state’s history and the second major hurricane in as many years to cause widespread flooding, power outages and damage. The storm’s scope and devastation have increased talk about climate change and its possible impact, which is said to include more frequent and more intense storm systems.

In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has been outspoken about climate change and its relationship to Sandy, on Monday proposed an ambitious program to leverage federal dollars — as much as $400 million — to buy out the owners of flood-prone areas and coastal zones to protect against future losses.

But in New Jersey, Christie has yet to identify a new funding source for the state’s open space preservation programs, one of which is used to buy out the owners of flood-prone properties to prevent future losses. The open space programs ran out of money last week, with all of the $400 million approved by voters in 2009 now gone.

Christie, who is often talked about as a possible GOP presidential contender in 2016, did not mention climate change during last month’s State of the State address in Trenton, a speech that extensively focused on the damage caused by Sandy and the ongoing recovery effort.

By contrast, Cuomo, during his State of the State address in Albany last month, said, “There is a 100-year flood every two years now.”

“First thing we have to learn is to accept the fact — and I believe it is a fact — that climate change is real,” Cuomo said. “It is denial to say this is, each of these situations is, a once-in-a-lifetime.”

Christie’s record on climate change does include his acknowledgment in 2011 that humans are “at least a part of the problem,” a statement that came after he told an audience in Toms River in 2010 that he needed to see “more science.”

In 2011, Christie also pulled New Jersey out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a cap-and-trade program aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Jeff Tittel of New Jersey’s Sierra Club said Christie’s downplaying of the climate change issue after Sandy puts New Jersey at a competitive disadvantage as it competes for federal recovery aid.

“We could lose money,” Tittel said. “That’s why New York is going through such a careful process.”

The failure to acknowledge a link between climate change and Sandy will have “direct, concrete consequences,” said Bill Wolfe, an environmental blogger.

An executive order signed by President Obama in December that established the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force calls for an understanding of the future risks posed by extreme weather events, Wolfe said.

“The point is, New York is going to have a leg up,” he said.

Wolfe attended Christie’s event Tuesday and tried to ask the governor a follow-up question on that specific issue but was shot down by the governor, who said, “I’m not answering your question because you’re not in the press.”

Tittel later questioned the governor’s contention that he doesn’t have the time to focus on the issue. He cited Christie’s recent trip to New Orleans for the Super Bowl and his regular television appearances, including on “The Late Show With David Letterman” on Monday night.

“After the state of New Jersey has been decimated by six major storms since this governor took office,” Tittel said. “He has plenty of time to deal with climate issues.”

Christie’s administration, has yet to say, meanwhile, whether and how it plans to fund New Jersey’s land preservation programs moving forward. Many believe he will propose using existing sales tax revenue, but his budget was $426 million short of revenue targets, according the latest reports from the Department of Treasury, with sales tax revenue down from the prior year.

Lawmakers held a meeting Monday to discuss several options, including the sales tax, the establishment of a new water-use fee or going back to voters to approve more borrowing.

“The land preservation activists have really not changed what we’ve been saying all along, which is you have to maintain your wetlands, which buffer us from storms,” said Eileen Swan of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation.

Climate change “adds to the urgency of the work that we do,” she said. “We need to use as many tools as we can to make people safer.”